Ministry of Defence
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British forces help make record drug bust at sea
Over 1,000 kilos of heroin have been seized in a Royal Navy-led multinational maritime forces and counter-terrorism operation.
An Australian warship operating under the command of a Royal Navy commodore and his British team made the record-breaking 1,032-kilogram haul, with an estimated UK street value of more than £140 million.
The heroin was discovered on board a dhow in the Indian Ocean, 30 miles off the east coast of Africa, near Kenya and Tanzania.
HMAS Darwin’s crew found the dhow during an operation for the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) counter-terrorism Combined Task Force (CTF) 150, currently commanded by Royal Navy Commodore Jeremy Blunden and manned by his team of 24 Royal Navy personnel in Bahrain.
The drugs interception is part of a multinational campaign to stop drug smuggling in the Indian Ocean, profits from which are known to help fund terrorist organisations including Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
